


Final Fantasy Meets ElfQuest

by MrsGrizzley



Category: Elfquest, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy XII, Original Work
Genre: Massive Crossover, Multi-Fandom Pileup, Such Crossover, With Original Situations blended in for fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-08-14 03:08:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 13,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7996363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsGrizzley/pseuds/MrsGrizzley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The fantastical equivalent of a 50 Car Pileup of Fandoms and more than a smidge of Original Content in one massive story.  This was originally written for the discussion forum for ElfQuest fans, The Scroll of Colors.  Sadly, the Scroll has been closed down in favor of Facebook groups and a few stubborn fansites, so much of what I wrote was in need of a new home anyway.  The story opens with Tidus and Yuna just off the Isle of Besaid following the Best Ending of Final Fantasy X-2.  The story ultimately connects to one of my other long-running Final Fantasy fics based on Final Fantasy XII, A Traveler in a Strange World.  Oh, who am I kidding?  Very few of my fics don't, actually, connect to each other through the repetition of original characters and original situations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

Their hands met in the water. Man and woman, they moved around each other in a silken dance of joy and timeless love. They were both very new to their adulthood, tested by burdens those decades older, and supposedly wiser, than they would have struggled to carry. He was lean in the way of an athlete strengthened by water and speed. She was slender and delicate, with an iron core stronger than mountains.  
  
He grabbed hold of her and pulled her close for a moment, reveling in the sensation of weightlessness, the smooth silk of the ocean depths, the tickle of her dark hair across his face, and the joy of knowing that he was once again real.  
  
They'd been like this once before, but it was a bittersweet memory. They'd danced around each other in a pool in a forest that was now dying a little more each day, so new to their love, so aware that it wasn't going to last.  
  
He'd saved her life, in the end, though. She had been a summoner, akin to a priestess, and fated to surrender her life for peace in a futile, empty sacrifice. He saved his summoner and now there were no more summoners. But the price had been himself.  
  
Like her father before her, his father's best friend, she'd chosen a path that should have led to her own destruction. She walked to face Sin, to destroy Sin and die in the process, and hoped that Sin would one day be gone forever.  
  
But the path of their fathers could not give them that peace, that Eternal Calm. Not ever. Yunalesca, the Unsent remnant of the woman who had created the only means they knew to defeat the behemoth Sin, had told them the truth that Yevon concealed. The Final Summoning that destroyed Sin and killed the Summoner, a willing sacrifice for peace, only caused Sin to be born again. Yunalesca's husband, Lord Zaon, had been the first guardian to become the Fayth of the Final Aeon, and so became the second Sin, beginning the terrible cycle of death and destruction. So together they cast off their false hope, and found a new one.  
  
And he had vanished with the aeons, beings created by the joining of the summoner with the spirits of people sealed in stone, the fayth. Sin existed because the fayth dreamed. To destroy Sin was to wake the fayth, free them from the stones, stop their dreaming.  
  
And he was a dream of the fayth. But he wasn't just a dream. And because he was both real and dream, he'd hung somewhere between awareness and nothing for two years. Until Yuna had freed the fayth a second time and they gave her a choice, and a chance.  
  
Now they were together again, floating in water and knowing a joy they hadn't had time for before.  
  
They surfaced and Yuna gasped for air. He laughed out of sheer delight. "We weren't down that long."  
  
"I'm . . . getting . . . better at holding my breath, but I'm not as good as you are, Star Player of the Zanarkand Abes!" She slapped at him in the water, sending up a splash, but she was smiling as she did so.  
  
She had changed so much in two years, and he loved it. "Remember, the best blitzball players can sleep underwater."  
  
She laughed. "I'll get there."  
  
He ran a fond, gloved, hand through the hair that had become more like his while they had been apart. "You will."  
  
A sudden gust blew across the surface of the water and caught their attention. He looked up at a suddenly darkening sky. "Yuna . . ."  
  
"We need to get back."  
  
They started swimming for the shore of Besaid Island, but either they were further out then they had planned, or something was pushing them back, because after several minutes of strong swimming, they were no closer to their home.  
  
Lightning ran through the clouds that had obscured what had been a bright and beautiful day. The waves grew larger around them and he reached out and grabbed hold of Yuna's hand.  
  
"I don't know what's going on, but I'm not letting go of you."  
  
The storm was upon them impossibly fast and impossibly strong. It was almost like the chaotic waters that had surrounded Sin, transporting him from the Al Bhed ship to Besaid when he had first arrived in Spira from the dream of Zanarkand.  
  
The waves were trying to pull them apart, but they just held on tighter, until a wave crashed over their heads and send them into blackness.  
  
  
*****  
Shuna wanted to swim in the lake near the Holt. Several other elves, Wolfrider and Palace-dweller both, decided that it would be fun, and so they set out one afternoon.  
  
They were not expecting what they saw when they arrived, though.  
  
Floating facedown in the water was a man. A human man. In strange white and yellow and black clothing, blonde hair and tanned skin. He wasn't moving.  
  
Shuna didn't scream. Several of the Palace-dwellers did, though. She ran into the water and was surprised to see Nightfall following behind her. It took most of them to drag him free of the lake.  
  
They laid him on his back on the shore and were calling for the rest of the tribe when his eyes opened suddenly and he sat up.  
  
Nightfall had an arrow in her bow in an instant, but the strange man simply looked at all of them in confusion. He looked at Nightfall, at her ears, her eyes, her hands, and then he looked at Shuna, her ears, her eyes, her hands.  
  
"Who are you?" Somehow Shuna found the courage to ask the simple question.  
  
She wasn't prepared for the look on the man's face. "I - I don't know."  



	2. Two

Yuna managed to drag herself to the shore, though she didn't know how she managed it. She lay there, on the white sand of the sheltered cove, panting for air and trying not to burst into tears. He was gone. Somehow they'd been separated in the water and now he was gone.   
  
Just like before. First after Macalania Temple, after she had been given the aeon Shiva, after they had killed Seymour for the first time, after they had seen Sin calmed by the power of the Hymn of the Fayth. And then when he had given up life and reality because she had Sent the Fayth when they defeated Sin.   
  
She was a summoner and that was what summoners did. The souls of the summoner and the fayth joined to create the aeon summoned to do battle. And the summoners Sent the souls of the dead to the Farplane so that they did not tarry in the world of the living, eventually to become fiends, monsters that hunted on the very living they so desperately envied.   
  
Or, that was the explanation Yevon had taught. So much of what the Teachings had explained had turned out to be false that Yuna wasn't sure any more where the fiends came from, or even just what the pyreflies, globes of glowing energy that responded to a Sending, or a Summoning, or the defeat of a fiend, were, or even if it mattered.   
  
A sob escaped her throat and she forced herself to begin sitting up. She didn't dare be caught unawares by a fiend, not here on an unfamiliar shore, not alone without the dresspheres or garment grids that had helped her fight Shuyin and defeat Vegnagun, a mechanical monstrosity that could have shattered the fragile Calm that had been purchased at such a terrible price.   
  
Looking around, though, Yuna couldn't see any fiends, or even the signs of any. She checked her belt and saw that she still had one garment grid equipped, and a few dresspheres attached to it. Just to be certain she made sure that Gunner was in the central location and active. There was still one empty space available, if she should happen to find any spheres. She was, after all, still a Gullwing, and the Gullwings were still sphere hunters.   
  
She scanned the beach and saw a path leading away from it. It didn't look like an easy path to follow, but it wasn't as if she couldn't do a little climbing.   
  
It never occurred to her to think that she wasn't in Spira any more until night fell, and two moons rose into the sky.   
  
****   
The Palace was in a frenzy. The Wolfriders had brought the news of the discovery of the strange young man who didn't know who he was and who, apparently, couldn't drown. That news alone wouldn't have caused this much disturbance, no, the Wolfriders would have seen the human disposed of or chased off or whatever. No, what had the Palace dwellers in a tizzy was the request, it wasn't a command no matter how they responded to it, from Timmain to meet him.   
  
Timmain. Even the Wolfriders had objected to bringing this strangeling human face to face with the mother of their race and the only living High One. But she had insisted. And she was still a High One.   
  
And so the Wolfriders were bringing him.   
  
****   
He couldn't remember his name. He couldn't remember where he came from. All he knew was that this was a place he didn't know and that he couldn't get a face out of his head. A young woman's face, with brown hair and bicolored eyes, one blue, one green. Something about that face made his gut squeeze tight whenever she came to mind, and made his throat close off with the uncomfortable tightness of holding back tears.   
  
Why was he so afraid of crying, anyways?   
  
In the back of his mind he heard a gravelly voice taunting him. _Crybaby_. He didn't even know whose voice it was.   
  
Around him were these strange people with the pointed ears and the large eyes and the hands that were missing fingers. Some of them rode on the backs of large wolves and others walked. More than one had weapons pointed at him. They were taking him somewhere; he didn't know where. He was content to go with them.   
  
The girl, the human girl who seemed to be one of them, watched him from behind. She seemed to be unable to stop watching him. He didn't know what she found so fascinating.   
  
A flash of memory caused him to stumble. A battle. Lots of green. His voice. _Newbie here!_ Another voice, unknown. _Sorry_. The strange people looked at him and the flash was gone. He regained his footing and continued on to wherever they were leading him.   
  
The procession stopped at the side of a rock hill. But then the stone melted into a doorway and on the other side, was crystal.   
  
The blond man with the strange tail of hair at the back of his head nodded to the others and then turned to face him. "We're here. This is the Palace."   
  
A tall figure stepped forward from all that crystal, a woman, taller than all the others, with shining silver hair and an exquisite face. "Come, Dream of the Fayth. I am Timmain, and it seems I have an apology to make."   
  
All breathing seemed to stop at those words.   



	3. Three

Cutter stared at Timmain. The Wolfriders stared at Timmain. The Palace dwellers stared at Timmain. Shuna stared at Timmain, which really surprised her if no one else.   
  
The strange young human was the first to recover his voice.   
  
"What are you talking about?" He charged forward a few steps, his voice rising to just short of a shout, almost a challenge. "How do you know me? I don't even know who I am. Why do you call me that? Who am I? What am I doing here?"   
  
He was about to grab hold of Timmain's gown when Cutter's sword came between them. It wasn't that he thought the boy a real threat, especially this close to the Palace, but Cutter could plainly tell that this was a cub who was almost grown, and one who was quickly losing out to his emotions.   
  
For his part, the young man was distracted enough to look at Cutter, and the way he stood between him and this strange woman who called herself Timmain. For a moment he looked back and forth between them and then a flood of images rushed painfully into his mind.   
  
_"Ahh, the code of the guardian. Protect the summoner even at the cost of one's own life. Very well, if you are offering your lives, I shall have to take them."_ The voice was strangely contralto, somewhere between masculine and feminine.   
  
_"These are not just my guardians. They are also my friends. I shall fight you too!"_ He saw the girl with the bicolored eyes, and she was dancing on the surface of a body of water, surrounded by the light of a sunset and small glowing balls that floated in the air.   
  
He looked up at them and found that he had fallen to his knees from the pain. "Is she your summoner? Are you her guardian?" Then he fell in a faint.   
  
****   
Yuna found the small, coastal village in the midmorning. By now she was reasonably certain that she wasn't in Spira anymore, but more than that she did not know. There were children on the outskirts, watched over by women who worked in nearby gardens. The children saw her first, looking up and shouting to their mothers.   
  
It was then that Yuna wondered if equipping Gunner was such a good idea. Their clothing was decidedly different from her own and even though the shorts and the half-skirt gave her better mobility, they certainly did stand out. As did the top cut to her navel with Jecht's symbol, the same one **he** wore on his necklace, set between her breasts.   
  
One of the women ran back into the village while the others grabbed up the children. Yuna stopped her approach and waited while the one who left returned with a grey haired man. Maybe they were like the Ronso, with a tribal elder and wary of strangers.   
  
Yuna formed Yevon's prayer with her hands and bowed to the man. "I am Yuna, from the Isle of Besaid. I come in peace." It was the least confrontational greeting she knew to make.   
  
The man seemed puzzled by her greeting. "I am Bacca of Winhelm. We are unused to strangers. Where is this Besaid from which you come?"   
  
Yuna thought for a moment, trying to decide how best to answer his question. She opened her mouth to explain that Besaid was an island in Spira when a not-so-whispered voice rose from the crowd of women.   
  
"She has demon eyes!" The comment quickly spread; some saying demon, some saying spirit, all sounding fearful and distrustful.   
  
Yuna knew about her eyes. Her mother was Al Bhed; her eyes had been green with the tell-tale spiraled irises. Her father was not, and his eyes had been blue. Yuna had been born with both their eyes, and hadn't thought anything of it, even among the staunchest Al Bhed haters in Yevon.   
  
The man, Bacca, backed up a step. "Demon woman! Are you here to steal our souls with your eyes?"   
  
Yuna was confused. "Wait, what are you talking about? What demons? What spirits?" She hadn't met a single fiend the entire night through. What could they be talking about if not fiends?   
  
But their fear was too strong, it rose too quickly. "Drive it away! Drive the demon away from our homes!"   
  
Yuna didn't know who threw the first stone, but she shot it out of the air and the sound of the gunshot bought instant silence. Too much silence. "I am no fiend. Nor am I the daughter of a fiend. I am the High Summoner Yuna, who defeated Sin. What are you talking about?"   
  
Bacca stood with his chest out, a handful of stones in his hand. "The demons live in the trees and the waters, they come to steal our souls with their eyes. And you, demon-witch, shall die!"   
  
All of a sudden stones were pelting her from all directions. One of them, on the ground beside her, seemed to gleam slightly in the morning light. Was it slightly more spherical than the others? Yuna grabbed it up out of instinct as she took off running in the only direction she had left to her, towards a sheer cliff face into the ocean.   
  
Once in the water, she dove deep as she could go, swimming out towards open sea, not noticing that the glow to the stone she'd grabbed was growing brighter.   
  
****   
Shuna was confused. Why could she not stop looking at the strange young man? He wasn't the handsomest man she'd met, though he was attractive in a young-and-eager sort of way. It must be the way he shouldn't be alive.   
  
He was face-down in that water, more than long enough to drown in the time it took her to drag him onto the shore, even with the help she'd had. But it was like he didn't need to breathe while in the water, and he only gasped for air once he was free of it.   
  
Why? Why? Why?   
  
****   
The ship captain heard the village headman repeat the story he'd told for the third time. Each time it sounded more improbable, but the man hadn't changed it in the retelling, so it must be true.   
  
A strange weapon that shot thunder. A woman-girl with demon eyes who had ran into the sea without fear of it.   
  
Maybe this was the weapon that would help him destroy those water demons once and for all. If he could find the demon-girl and take it from her.   



	4. Four

From behind Timmain Sunstream looked at the unconscious human for a moment in disbelief as his father and several other Wolfriders prepared a means to carry him into the Palace at Timmain's direction. His arms squeezed reflexively around Brill's growing midsection and felt their cub move within her. For a moment he felt a strange kinship with the human who had almost, but not quite, attacked Timmain in frustration. But he didn't know what that kinship might be.   
  
They were both blond, both young. But other than that . . . Sunstream was at a loss for ideas.   
  
He reached his mind out to the High One. _Timmain? Did we? I mean . . . did I?_   
  
Timmain's mind briefly fluttered with negation. _I am responsible. I moved too quickly. I will need your assistance, though, if the Palace is to correct what it has corrupted and restore this young man to his lifemate._   
  
*****   
He woke within crystalline walls. His head hurt. His eyes burned with tears he wanted to shed, but didn't know why he was holding back so hard. He lay prone on a hard surface. Slowly he blinked his eyes open . . . and remembered where he was when he saw the unearthly face of the woman who had called him "the dream of the Fayth".   
  
"What's happening to me?" He just wanted some answers and it seemed like all he got were more questions.   
  
Her eyes seemed almost sorrowful. "I apologize for the interference that caused this. At my direction my students took this Palace, this vessel, into your world because I thought that others of my kind may have been there. But when we arrived, it was not the world I thought it was. I directed our return as soon as I ascertained that you were not the fair haired warrior we sought, and your mate was not the mystical young woman who might have descended from my kin, but it seems that our return was not without . . . unintended consequences."   
  
"My . . . mate?" Again the face of the woman with the bicolored eyes sprang to mind and he squeezed his eyes shut to keep back the tears.   
  
Timmain's voice was sad. "Yes, Dream of the Fayth, your mate. The energy that lives within the Palace has interfered with your memories, because you are what you are, and only that same energy can restore you."   
  
He forced his eyes open and then made his screaming muscles push himself into a sitting position. "Let's get on with it then."   
  
Timmain nodded and looked around at the gathered elves. They rearranged themselves so that she and the young man had a clear view of a strange pedestal with two columns on it, and a chair off to the side. As he watched the carven columns started to spin in place and an image appeared between them, at the moment it was simply an indistinct collection of colors. "This is the Scroll of Colors. It will help you remember."   
  
As he watched the image cleared at he found that he was looking at himself, seated in water, awaiting something, and then light flashed and he saw a stadium filled with people who stood to cheer as he stood forward, a ball in his hand.   
  
"Blitzball!" he shouted out when he suddenly remembered as the screen was filled with chaotic images of a fast-paced game played in the water. He was a blitzball champion, captain of the Zanarkand Abes, and then, after another retired, of the Besaid Aurochs. He was the son of the greatest blitzball player of them all, Jecht, who disappeared without a trace ten years before . . .   
  
A figure in red appeared on a ledge above a giant human city, lifting a saki jug in salute to a huge orb of water. "Auron!" he called. Yes, Auron helped raise him after his father disappeared. He wasn't originally from Zanarkand. He also seemed to be a friend of his father's though how and when the two had met, the young man didn't know.   
  
As they watched the Scroll of Colors showed the destruction of Zanarkand and the young man's arrival on the world of Spira. Then it showed the interior of a darkened building and the young woman with bicolored eyes stood there, emerging from a room, exhausted and stumbling. "I did it." He heard her voice say, "I have become a Summoner."   
  
"Oh, Yuna." Now the tears flowed, and he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at a blonde and tanned elf who seemed to understand. The four-fingered hand squeezed in sympathy.   
  
The images on the Scroll did not stop. All assembled watched the progress of the summoner's pilgrimage to defeat Sin. They saw the battle at the Al Bhed Home and they saw the mockery of a wedding. The young man's hands clenched into fists as the Scroll showed the maesters threatening his life to make Yuna back down.   
  
From the back of the crowd there was a sudden gasp of surprised understanding. Heads turned to look at Shuna, who blushed at the attention. She suddenly knew why she was so fascinated with the young man. She was beginning to be able to draw on the magic of the Palace, only faintly yet, but she had drawn enough to read the young man's heart, and he was like her Bee. He looked at this Yuna like Bee looked at her. She suddenly felt very warm and shy to be held in such high regard by someone. She also knew that if it was in her power, she had to help this stranger find his way back to his mate.   
  
The Scroll showed the final battle against Sin. It showed them arriving at the heart of Sin, where his father, Jecht, waited and hoped to be defeated. Jecht had been transported to Spira when he vanished from Zanarkand and became a guardian to the summoner Braska, Yuna's father, along with Auron. When the three had arrived in the ruins of the Zanarkand, which had been destroyed a thousand years before, Jecht chose to become the Fayth of Braska's Final Aeon, and so became Sin. The scroll showed him holding his father's dying body, saying that he hated him with the tears flowing down his face that called him a liar. It showed the battle against Yu Yevon, the summoner at the heart of Sin, and it showed Yuna sending the spirits of the faith afterwards.   
  
Tears flowed down more than one face as they saw what happened when Yuna Sent the Fayth. They watched the Scroll show him begin to fade away. They saw the last embrace and they saw him run and take that last leap. Then the image went dark for a moment.   
  
When it cleared they saw the young woman, Yuna, standing in a field that quickly went dark around her. They saw her run in confusion and frustration until she collapsed, crying. "I'm all alone." Then they heard a whistle. She looked up. Another whistle and the faint outline of a figure rimmed in light. Another whistle and she followed him towards a path of light. A fourth whistle and she followed the figure out of the pit.   
  
The image dimmed again, and then brightened to show Yuna standing amongst flowers beside a boy. "Would you like to walk with him again?" The boy asked. Yuna looked stunned for a moment and then quickly nodded. "We cannot promise anything, but we will do what we can."   
  
The young man in the Scroll's image awoke in water. He stretched and then swam to the surface, breaking to the sound of gulls. He whistled and seemed to laugh. Then he began to swim towards the shore. He was walking out of the water when he looked up at a vessel that descended towards him, far too quickly. The giant ship missed him, but barely, as a hatch opened and Yuna jumped out and ran right into his arms. "Are you real?" she asked as she looked at him. "Well, do I pass?" She nodded. "You're back." He sighed in relief. "I am back."   
  
The spinning Scrolls slowed and came to a stop as the enthralled audience blinked themselves awake. Timmain lay a gentle hand on the young man's shoulder. "Do you remember yourself now, Dream of the Fayth?"   
  
He nodded. "My name is Tidus."

 


	5. Five

Madness leaves scars; scars that linger long after the illness fades. The madness of the powerful, even more so. And I was powerful in ways that defied description, or comparison.   
  
As a child I dreamed of other worlds. In my transition I dreamed of other selves to travel those worlds. As a woman new to adulthood I became one of those other selves – freed and enslaved, powerful and Nameless. And I would do it all again in a heartbeat.   
  
The kindness of others gave me names, and even a Name. And in them I found a family the likes of which I had never known before.   
  
Losing even one of them was painful beyond belief. Losing a third in one night – was more than I could take. After the Massacre, we scattered. One of our own had been turned against us and having a homeplace made too tempting a target. To protect the ones who survived, we threw ourselves to the winds – and I lost my mind.   
  
Looking back, it is amazing that I did as little damage as I did. To fill the void I fabricated a whole House of people and my madness became a seed within myself. I still grieve for the child that never was.   
  
I recovered, again, through the kindness of others. But I awoke to a grief too strong to bear. My sisterniece advised that I should try being someone new. So I did. And I'm still trying to leave the grief behind me.   
  
Madness leaves scars that linger long after the illness has faded.   
  
*****   
Once she was sure that she was far enough away to shake off any pursuers, Yuna surfaced for air. She was furious, at the villagers for being so shortsighted, at herself for being so stupidly trusting, at Tidus for not being here with her when she needed him. Then logic, and her natural compassion, reasserted itself. She didn't know what the villagers had suffered. Trust was more hopeful than distrust; after all, she had worked to stop a war based in distrust. And Tidus would never have been torn away from her willingly. Not again.   
  
She looked up at the sky. It didn't look so very different from the sky over Spira. With a wistful smile she placed her fingers in her mouth and let out a shrill whistle. Somewhere, somehow, Tidus would hear her, and he would come running. He had promised.   
  
After a moment Yuna dove back underwater and began searching for a safe place to stay for a while.   
  
*****   
In the Palace, Tidus looked up suddenly in response to something only he could hear. A hint of a smile touched Timmain's face.   
  
"What is it, Dream of the Fayth?"   
  
"Yuna. She's here." He paused. "Well, not here-here, but somewhere-here. I've got to get to her. Now."   
  
Timmain nodded, that ghostly smile touching her face once more. "Indeed."   
  
Tidus looked over at the Scroll. "Can that show me where she is?"   
  
Timmain nodded again. The Scrolls began to slowly turn. "Concentrate upon your beloved."   
  
Tidus didn't have to be asked twice. Yuna was all that he could think about and the sound of her whistle still teased at the edge of his hearing.   
  
The picture between the two Scrolls slowly cleared at he saw Yuna swimming through the blue ocean depths somewhere. A hint of rock appeared in front of her. She seemed to be swimming towards some kind of plant-covered underwater ruin.   
  
Tidus looked around at the elves. "Where is that?"   
  
From the circle of Sunstream's arms, Brill looked puzzled. "Those waters look familiar, but I cannot say for certain. Our old home – would not look like that without the aid of a great many shapers."   
  
"It's a place to start looking, though, right?" Tidus stood up quickly. "Which way is it? I'm going."   
  
Those who had traveled with the Palace to the now-destroyed Crest Point looked at each other, uncertain how to respond to Tidus' naiveté.   
  
Finally Brill spoke again. "I will go with him. I must return to my home." She didn't have to tell Sunstream that the saltwater pools he built for her were not the open sea. He already knew. And he was glad she had stayed this long.   
  
Arguments broke out as various parties differed on how to best approach this search. All agreed that without more detailed information, the Palace itself couldn't transport them.   
  
Off to the side, Cutter shook his head in disbelief and frustration. "Where is HalfElven?" he asked no one in particular. "I know that she would understand these strangers better than we."   
  
Silver-haired Skywise, beside him, sighed. "But she's not. Archer reappeared briefly to introduce his new lifemate to his father, but none of them have returned for any length of time."   
  
Cutter looked at his soulbrother in shock. "What about Starsong?" Surely a father would know where to find his own daughter.   
  
"After she left because of Ember's dreams, and to make sure her mother was alright, she told Wolfsong that she was going ‘exploring'. If any of them had been here . . . . Even Timmain says that their Traveling is similar to the way the Palace flies. With one of them, . . . we'd have found this ‘Aerith' and ‘Cloud', her bodyguard."   
  
And they wouldn't be faced with a worldwide search for a lone human in a world of them, just to set right what was wrong. But neither had to say what they both knew.

 


	6. Six

I didn't know who she was.   
  
It is, perhaps, the only defense that I can raise. She was a beautiful woman in love with a genuinely good man. I didn't know.   
  
I had already made my choice. Had already drifted into her soul, awaiting conception of my new body. I wasn't prepared for the argument that drove my mother into another man's arms, wasn't prepared to be the wrong man's offspring, I and my brother.   
  
But then our father betrayed us and an interloper invaded out mother. I walled myself away within Mother's womb, used my Power and became a "sleeping child". My brother had no defenses. The invader changed him.   
  
He was born and stolen away. Our father, the traitor, lied to him. Years later I was born from Mother's comatose body, entombed in its crystal shell.   
  
My brother found me, a toddler child, in a field miles from anything. A researcher, on vow of silence, confirmed the impossible. I was his full sister. The daughter of a mother he'd been told had died at his birth.   
  
Jenova.   
  
Lucrecia Crescent.   
  
I didn't know who she was.   
  
*****   
Yuna slowly swam through the vegetation of the strange underwater reef. For some unknown reason it reminded her strongly of the sunken machina cities on Spira. A sudden flash of motion caught her attention and she turned her head just in time to see a splash of vibrant color disappear behind a boulder.   
  
Quickly she followed and arrived in time to see the brilliantly colored fin vanish behind another outcropping. Again she followed and again she was able to catch only a glimpse of whatever-it-was until she rounded a corner to find the creature in all her alien glory.   
  
The body of a woman, tail of a fish, shining blonde hair streaked with a single lock of white floating like a halo around her head. White and green and blue and gold streaked the scales of her fin, gold to match the molten color of her eyes.   
  
The woman-fish smiled at Yuna's shock and surprise. But that shock was eclipsed by the stunned expression on Yuna's face when a voice spoke within her mind.   
  
_Well, how are you enjoying your Travels?_   
  
****   
Tidus was becoming very quickly very frustrated with these "Palace-dwellers". He felt like he was running out of time while they argued back and forth about who would go with him and how they would travel. He just wanted to be out on the road, whatever road it might be, and one step closer to Yuna.   
  
He didn't notice for half a moment that the whole Palace had become shatteringly silent. He turned to see the Timmain woman standing in front of three floating disks.   
  
"Tidus," Timmain looked at him and smiled softly, "you will travel on these." A buzz of noise started up but a raised hand silenced it again. "They will float and soar at the will of the rider. They should be swift enough to get you to your lifemate quickly."   
  
Tidus flashed a thankful grin and then curiosity won out and he ran his hand over the smooth curve of an upswept fin. "What are they made of?"   
  
"The Palace itself." Her eyes twinkled in humor at the surprise in his face. "Returning them will give us the opportunity to feast your reunion."   
  
Timmain looked out at the assembled elves and Tidus saw the blond haired wolf-rider fingering his blade. "But Timmain, the humans will see them easily enough if they fly through the skies above their heads."   
  
She nodded. "Someone once told us all that the humans would believe in us whether we were here or not and so we should pick our battles carefully. I choose to take her advice."   
  
The chieftain blinked in surprise and then backed down.   
  
Tidus leapt up onto one of the disks and felt it respond. This was more fun than riding down the mooring cables from the airship to disrupt Seymour's wedding to Yuna. "Alright, who's with me."   
  
From the group, Brill smiled at Sunstream. _Until the next time, Lifemate._ He reluctantly let her go climb aboard the second disk. Timmain nodded at her.   
  
"I'll go too." The voice was a touch harsher than an elven one, but more lilting than Tidus' own. Shuna stepped hesitantly forward. "I would want to someone to see me home again if I were lost . . ." She seemed to lose courage until Tidus grinned at her.   
  
He nimbly directed his disk over to the third one and offered his hand to help her rise. "I'll make sure you get back here safely. I'm a Guardian, remember?"   
  
There was a scattered laugh and then final, shouted, farewells, and the three flew off in the direction of the sea and, hopefully, Yuna.

 


	7. Seven

Yuna surfaced in a shadowed grotto as afternoon faded into a spectacular sunset. She forced herself not to remember the sunset over the Mi'ihen Highroad or the sunset over Zanarkand. The thought of Zanarkand brought a sting to her eyes as she turned towards the fish-woman who pulled herself up from the water and onto a rock.

"Who are you? What was that? Where are we?" The questions couldn't pour from Yuna fast enough, the strain of unanswered curiosity overcoming her natural reticence. Well, that and more than enough continued exposure to her cousin Rikku's exuberance.

The woman laughed, a sound accompanied by a strange chime in the watery cavern. "I'm a Traveler. Just like you are now. Have you not realized that you are no longer in your home world?"

Yuna opened her mouth to answer negatively when she saw the rising moons and blushed, nodding her head. "Where are we then? I thought the storm had just blown us to another shore."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Storm? I hadn't heard of storms being involved since Oz. But even more is that I personally am unaware of anyone entering the World of Two Moons who didn't know exactly where they were when they got here. Where are you from?"

Yuna frowned and pulled herself up onto an adjacent rock. "I'm from Spira."

"Spira? I haven't heard of that world before."

"And that surprises you?"

"Of course it surprises me. The last time I found myself someplace new it turned into a nightmare."

Yuna was silent for a moment. "What happened?" Her voice was soft, gentle, trying to be as sympathetic as she could.

"I had to help a man hunt down and kill the brother I adored."

"I – I'm sorry."

She sighed. "He made his choices and I made mine. I loved him, but the evil he had done, and the evil he sought to do . . . I had to do it." She took a deep breath. "Anyway, it seems some introductions are overdue. I change my name frequently, but I'm using Maracae right now."

"I'm Yuna, daughter of High Summoner Braska. I was High Summoner myself, but the summoners are no more. I Sent the aeons." She looked up at Maracae's face – turning several shades of purple and alternating expressions faster than Yuna could identify them.

Finally Maracae took a breath. "Where's your summoner's horn?" Then she burst out laughing. When she caught her breath she started to apologize. "Sorry, it's such a bad joke and you wouldn't get it if it weren't. I never even played that game – just caught a hint of it last time I spoke to . . . " She faded off, caught by the expression on Yuna's face. "What is it? Don't tell me you actually have horns?"

Yuna couldn't help it. The memory was so strong. The promise of the Ronso, _We will shine your statue brightest, with a great horn upon your head!_ Then later, the sight of the statue rising high above the mountain, a Ronso horn on her forehead. Yuna tried to regain control, break loose of the memory, but suddenly Maracae was beside her, her hands on Yuna's shoulders.

"No, don't stop."

"What do you mean?"

"You're telepathic, sweetheart, just like me. I need to see whatever has you so strongly. Show me."

The words were a release. The memories came flooding from her. Her father leaving to defeat Sin, the man from Zanarkand at his side. The celebration that meant Sin was dead, but so was her father. Kimahri and Besaid. Sin's rebirth and her decision to follow her father's path, for Spira's sake. The struggle for her first aeon, and emerging victorious to see him for the first time. A man from Zanarkand, and the son of her father's friend. More aeons, betrayals. Her journey to the ruins of Zanarkand and into the body of Sin to destroy it forever. Tidus' final leap into the clouds when she Sent the aeons so that none could birth Sin anew.

Tears hidden by smiles and an ache that never went away. A sphere and an impossible hope. The Gullwings. Adventures on her own terms, but Spira would not let her be. She was the only living High Summoner, ever. A man from ancient Zanarkand and the aeons returned, but enslaved. Freeing the aeons and uniting a fractured people. Into the Farplane to take an ancient love to a man who thought it gone forever. Forgiveness and reunion.

Aeons set free make an incredible offer. Her own reunion on the shores of Besaid. Returning to Zanarkand and a promise to cherish each other. He didn't disappear. He didn't disappear . . .

Yuna came back to herself and realized that there were tears coursing down her face. Then she realized that Maracae was crying, too.

"Oh, dear God in Heaven. Shiva. Ifrit. Bahamut."

"You know the aeons?"

"Not . . . not by that name, not in that way. I am not a summoner, but yes, I knew them and I summoned them." She looked down and saw the stone that was, astonishingly enough, still in Yuna's grasp. "Where'd you get that?"

Yuna looked down at the stone, too. "I picked it up outside a village in this world. Thought it was a sphere at the time."

"It's not a sphere, not as you know it. Do you have a means to wear it?

Yuna frowned. "I can put it in the Garment Grid, but it's not a dressphere."

Maracae nodded. "Close enough." The stone clicked into place and glowed strangely, but did not connect to the other dresspheres on the grid. She closed her eyes and sighed. "What happened to **him**?" The emphasis was all Yuna needed to hear.

"The storm. He said he couldn't let go. I woke up alone. Please, do you know where he is?"

Maracae shook her head. "Not right now, but it shouldn't be too hard to find him, on this world especially. I'll help you look." Yuna smiled and Maracae grinned. "Now, it's getting dark. You wanna set out now, or do you want to hole up somewhere until morning?"

Yuna was about to answer when a shrill whistle rang out across the sky. "Tidus!"

She couldn't remember swimming out of the cave. The next thing she knew was that she was treading water and looking up at three shapes flying through the sky towards them, Tidus' laughing face in the lead. He let out another shrill whistle and Yuna responded with one of her own.

They didn't notice the ship in the distance until a boom filled the air, then a giant net flew around Tidus and his companions. The net then yanked them onto the ship.

"TIDUS!!!!" Yuna's scream was painful to hear.

"Yuna, hold on." Maracae was in the water next to her and grabbed her arm. Yuna barely had time to notice that Maracae's fin had changed to a pair of shapely legs and that she was wearing a short, frilly skirt to go with the sea-shell brassiere. Then they were standing on the deck of the ship, looking at the human ship's captain pulling Tidus to his feet with a blade at his throat.

"Well, demon-maid, it seems that I have something you desire, and you have something I desire. Will you give it to me, or do I have to hurt this one?" He pressed the blade edge a slight bit harder into Tidus' throat, barely splitting the skin and sending a trickle of blood down the side of his neck.


	8. Eight

His luck, the human captain decided, was finally in. He had the demon-maid, and leverage against her and he had managed to capture one of the sea demons as well – with unborn to boot. Well, that would be one more demon-spawn that would never see sunlight.   
  
He grinned as the maiden narrowed her demon eyes. "What, precisely, are you wanting?"   
  
"Your thunder weapons, and the magic to make them."   
  
_Dear God, he wants to materia-dupe the dresspheres!_ Maracae thought to Yuna. Her words were unfamiliar, what was materia?, but the image that accompanied them – using one sphere to create more – invited a host of terrifying possibilities.   
  
_Why the dresspheres?_ Yuna found that this thought-speaking was a much quicker form of communication than clumsy words.   
  
_Apparently they haven't found gunpowder yet and they don't have Summoning._   
  
_No summoning? I would love to introduce them to Bahamut. How did you summon if you weren't a summoner?_   
  
Maracae smiled to herself. The girl wasn't stupid, that was for certain, and had learned quick thinking. _I had a sphere that held a memory._   
  
Tidus felt his heart sink as Yuna placed a hand on the Garment Grid. She was going to give in, cave like she had when those blasted Yevonites had held a gun at his chin and forced her to marry a dead man.   
  
"Don't do it, Yuna." He tried to call out to her but the captain pressed the blade edge a little harder into his throat.   
  
"Ah ah ah, didn't anyone ever tell you that heroes end up dead?"   
  
Yuna smiled at him, that same bittersweet smile that always covered up the tears she wanted to cry. "I'm not the girl I once was."   
  
Reluctantly he nodded as much as he was able and Yuna touched the Garment Grid, changing out of Gunner and into the dress she wore as a summoner.   
  
The captain nodded. "There, you see, she's not stupid. Now, hand it over, lass." He held out his free hand towards her. He almost missed the rising glow of the stone in the center of the grid, the one Yuna had found on the outskirts of the human village. "What?"   
  
"You wanted my magic, didn't you? I am High Summoner Yuna of the Isle of Besaid and I am not to be trifled with." A circle appeared around her and the water began to boil.   
  
The crewmen looked nervously around until the moment that the giant serpent rose up from the water, towering over them with fins like wings. Then they screamed and ran for cover, but where was safety in a wooden vessel in the sea?   
  
The captain turned to look at Yuna, his attention completely distracted. "What have you done, witch?"   
  
Tidus grabbed the man's arms and yanked on it, hard. The captain fell and dropped the blade. "Threaten me, will you?"   
  
The serpent hovered above them a bare moment more before falling forward and splintering the vessel in two, throwing all aboard into the water.   
  
Yuna and Tidus felt their hands join in the water and it was glorious, the feeling of being together again, but they had to get away from the wreckage of the boat, and the great serpent that was splashing around in it like a child in the bath.   
  
Maracae quickly thought instructions to Yuna as she pushed herself forward to catch the human girl who had been traveling with Tidus. She seemed familiar, somehow. The female elf was completely unknown, and completely unlike the Wavedancers that she remembered seeing briefly before she became a Traveler.   
  
It only took a moment, the transportations, and all five of them were in the cave once again with the three flying disks beside them. Then Yuna let the energy release from the stone and the giant serpent dissipated with a childlike gratitude for the fun.   
  
Maracae let out an explosive breath as the last glowing motes faded. "That was amazing, Yuna! ‘I am High Summoner Yuna and I am not to be trifled with!' Where did you get that attitude? Is it new, or did you just let it out to play? Did you see his face when Leviathan rose up out of the water? Aww, man, I'm going to have to save this memory to show some people when I see them again. That was perfect!"   
  
"Leviathan, was that the name of the creature I summoned?"   
  
"Yep, I get the impression you haven't seen him before. Well, some of the ones you showed me were unfamiliar to me, as well. I'm not sure what to make of Valefor and those triplet insect girls were completely new. Still, all that water in Spira and no Leviathan? That's got to be criminal somewhere."   
  
Tidus looked at Maracae, his arms around Yuna's shoulders like he wasn't going to ever let go again. "This a new friend of yours?"   
  
Yuna nodded. "Yeah. I see you picked up some new friends too."   
  
"Oh, almost forgot." He nodded to the human girl. "This is Shuna." And then he indicated the elfin one. "And this is Brill. I'm supposed to see Brill back to her people before the rest of us head back to the people who found me."   
  
"I'm called Maracae right now." Everyone noticed the sudden change in Maracae's voice, now not so jubilant. "Shuna, huh? I remember you, though it's been a while. You're the human cub who led the revolt against the Djun."   
  
Shuna frowned in concentration. "Have we met?"   
  
Maracae shook her head. "Not directly. It's complicated." She took a deep breath and exhaled, clearing her demeanor. "Alright, let's get the mommy-to-be to safer territory and then we can head back and I get to see what the Palace looks like in this time."   
  
Maracae, as it turned out, could also fly under her own magical power. Yuna couldn't help but be amazed at some of the things that she could do, but then, Yuna had managed to accomplish quite a few staggering things, magically speaking, herself over the course of two journeys and into a third.   
  
But now, Yuna and Tidus were together again, and all was right with their world.

 


	9. Nine

Yuna, Tidus, and Shuna flew across the sky on the glistening disks that had been provided for them. Maracae flew beside them, under her own power. As they approached a forestland Tidus slowed down and drew closer to the trees and the others followed suit. Abruptly the trees cleared in front of a mountain and an opening appeared leading to crystal-lit halls.

Maracae laughed. "Not even the Raths of Fahri ever looked so welcoming."

They landed just outside and started to walk in, with the disks floating behind them. Timmain was waiting for them. She looked at Maracae for a moment. "So you have brought us a Traveler as well." Unnoticed behind them, the disks sunk to the floor and dissolved back into the substance that birthed them.

Maracae stopped midstep. "Timmain? What're you doing wearing a dress?!"

Tidus looked over at her, incredulous. "What else would she be wearing?"

Maracae flushed. "Well, uhm, normally she's . . . uhm . . . skyclad."

"Skyclad?" Tidus still didn't understand.

"Nude, okay? Normally she's bare buck nekkid."

Shuna hid a laugh behind her hand.

Timmain smiled. "I see that you know who I am." Elves began arriving around her. Shuna ran to Bee, who was standing with the Wolfriders.

Maracae flushed a deeper red. "I'm sorry. I'm called Maracae . . . uhm, Goldeneyes. I just . . . happen to know a lot about Abode." She looked up at Timmain. "How did you know that I'm a Traveler?"

"Because my son's children adopted one who stayed with us."

"Really? Who . . ." Maracae was abruptly distracted by a new arrival. "Voll?! You're supposed to be dead! I mean really dead, as in millennia dead!" She blinked at the cubling who was using Voll as a jungle gym. "Who's cub is that?!"

"My sister." The Wolfrider who stepped forward was unmistakably the child of Strongbow and Moonshade and Maracae fell to the floor in surprise.

"Crescent. What . . . How . . . Who . . ."

"Her name was HalfElven. She gave me a Choice, and a chance, and I took it."

Timmain looked over at Cutter. "It is time for us to share our tale, and to show this Traveler why she is needed."

\---

The elves gathered for the Howl, Palace- and Forest- dweller both. Tidus and Yuna held each other at the edge of the circle, fascinated. Maracae sat in the center, still half stunned at what she was seeing.

Cutter stepped forward with Timmain behind him. "This night we howl for HalfElven and the legacy she left us. She came to us a wanderer, a half-blood like Timmorn and Two-Edge. She became a Wolfrider and a friend."

"In these halls she shared a secret with us," Timmain continued, "That others of my kind had learned to use a power within themselves that we had not, yet – the power to travel, not just through space, but between realities outside space. One such group had found a home on a world called Faerun, and from there was HalfElven's father born."

"Faerun? That's Forgotten Realms. That's . . . that's Northwind Dreamsail!" Maracae was highly agitated.

Timmain nodded. "HalfElven revealed that the potential for this Traveling power lay in all of us and that others of my kind may have gone on to continue their journeys in other realities, other worlds. This was her legacy – hope. Hope that one day I would be able to see and to touch others of my kind."

"Hope can be dangerous. Which Dreamsail was she? or did she ever say?"

Voll stepped forward. "The day she saved my life she called herself Destiny and said that she acted against herself to do so."

Maracae turned very pale. "Destiny? Destiny was here? Where is she? Where'd she go?"

"We do not know." Timmain looked sorrowful. "Do you know her?"

"Of course I know her. She's my Ne-chan, my little sister. She's the one who adopted me into the Dreamsail family. I haven't seen her in ages."

"Maracae," Timmain was solemn, "we . . . I wish to ask a favor of you. HalfElven and her Traveling offspring, Archer and Starsong, have left us . . ."

"Starsong? That's . . . that's Mirari." Maracae looked over at Skywise and her eyes popped like they were going to leave her head. "You're Ree's father! Why could I not see that?"

Tidus leaned in to whisper into Yuna's ear. "Easily distracted, isn't she?"

Yuna had to cover her mouth and almost choked on a laugh.

Maracae shook her head. "Gosh, I'm an idiot. Ree'll have a good laugh at me when I get back there." She took a deep breath. "You needed a favor?" She looked at Timmain.

Timmain nodded. "In searching the Scroll of Colors, I found signs of others like me. I attempted to direct a journey across worlds to find them, but arrived in the wrong world. We returned, but mistakenly brought the Dream of the Fayth and his lifemate with us."

Maracae looked over at Tidus and Yuna. "So that was the storm. Actually, I suspect that all you pulled was Tidus. Yuna came under her own power. She's a Traveler, like me, but very new to the gifts."

Tidus squeezed Yuna tighter. He didn't want to ever let go.

"So you need my help getting them home?" Maracae turned her attention back to Timmain.

"We require, also, your assistance in finding a young woman and her bodyguard. The young woman may be a descendant of my kin."

Yuna looked at Tidus for a moment and then spoke up. "Would we have to go home right away?"

Maracae grinned at them. "Curious to see what other worlds are out there?"

Yuna grinned back. "I have found that I enjoy exploring."

"Fine by me, if they don't mind. Who're you looking for, specifically?"

"The young woman is named Aerith." Timmain paused when she saw that all color and expression had drained from Maracae's face. "Is something wrong?"

"Aerith." Maracae's voice was grief-stricken. "And Cloud. You're looking for the Ancients, aren't you?"

"You know them?"

Maracae closed her eyes. "Which version?"

"I do not understand."

"Worlds have variations. Sometimes they vary drastically and you end up some place unexpected."

"Like your surprise upon arriving here?"

Maracae nodded. "Something like that."

"I can show you in the Scroll of Colors." Timmain gestured as Maracae stood. Tidus and Yuna stepped forward to follow them as the howl broke apart, some going out to the forest, others leaving for errands of their own. Cutter, Skywise, and Sunstream joined the group to see the Scroll.

The images that the Scroll had to show were chaotic – a man with spiky blond hair and a huge sword, a building with flowers growing in a circle, a scrap of conversation about the Ancients and their endless journey, Aerith's hands clasped in prayer, a girl's voice calling out in agonized fury, "Nii-sama!".

Maracae turned away from the Scroll and fell to her knees, trembling. Timmain paused the images in concern. "You know this world?"

A sob escaped from Maracae and she hugged herself in grief. Yuna knelt next to her and laid a gentle, curious hand on her arm. "Maracae?"

She looked up and there were tears streaming down her face. "I know that world. I know that specific variation. I can take you there, though I'd hoped never to return. That was my voice."

 


	10. Ten

Maracae had enough time to go over the basics of Traveling with Yuna while the elves sorted among themselves who was going and who was staying. Shuna wanted to stay, and quite a few of the Wolfriders weren't too keen on going, either. In the end Timmain made the request, and it was only a request no matter how they took it, that all go with them. She had a feeling, a premonition, that the wolfblooded warriors would be called upon. So everyone, too-precious cublings and all, entered the Palace and prepared to leave Abode, the World of Two Moons.

Maracae stood by the Scroll of Colors and gently touched minds with the elves around her. _Now take the Palace with us. I'll form the Doorway here. Now we are going through and I am closing the Door._ With an exhaled breath she opened her eyes. "Well, we're here, but I took us to a place far from where the ones you seek are located. We'll need to fly above the surface."

Timmain nodded.

Cutter looked confused. "Why?"

"Better they see us coming and have time to prepare. They've had problems with things falling from the sky." Maracae briefly Sent directions to those elves who guided the Palace in flight. _The city will be in this direction, but the city will be in ruins. We seek a newer city nearby. Cloud would never be too far from Midgar._

_And what of Aerith?_ Timmain asked.

_Cloud will know how to find her._

\---

Cloud was riding his bike, Fenrir, in the wastes outside of Midgar. He was just returning from a delivery when his PHS cell phone rang. He skidded the motorcycle to a stop and flipped the phone open, holding it to one ear, his eyes on the landscape around him. Was that a glint in the sky on the horizon.

"Cloud here."

"Cloud!" It was Tifa, and she was upset. "You need to get back here."

"What is it?" He was instantly on edge.

"It's . . . You've got to see it for yourself. It's in the sky, and it's coming straight for us!"

Cloud flipped the phone closed and dropped it into a pocket as the bike roared back to life and he raced back to Tifa and the children.

\---

He could see the glint on the horizon growing larger as he drew closer to town. A giant structure, reflecting back the sunlight from walls of pure crystal. Cloud felt his heart chill inside his chest. They had already been through so much . . . What had found them now?

Tifa was waiting for him outside the bar when he rolled up outside. She jumped on behind him. "I told Marlene and Denzel to stay inside. Everyone else is going to meet us just outside of town." She spoke loudly to be heard over Fenrir's engine as they rode towards the outskirts. "It slowed down and stopped there just after you hung up. It's like it's . . . waiting."

It wasn't hard to see the crowd of people waiting a good distance from the crystal structure. The structure itself . . . sat upon the earth and did nothing. Cloud stopped the motorcycle just short of the crowd and he and Tifa jumped off and ran towards the knot on the inside of the crescent shaped gathering. People moved out of their way to let them pass. It was eerily silent.

Vincent saw them. "Cloud. Tifa."

Cloud nodded to him. "Anything?"

Vincent shook his head once. "Nothing."

Barret was edgy. "The damn thing just sits there."

Just then there was a sound and the crowd gasped in response. It was a hissing noise. Cloud and the others turned to see that an opening had appeared in one side of the structure, the side facing them, and that figures stood just inside it.

Everyone looked at Cloud as if to tell him to go first. He sighed and took the lead position, walking slowly towards the figures. He wasn't expecting to see a familiar face emerge from the structure to meet him.

\---

"I'll go out first." Maracae told the elves. "Make no threatening moves. They are very edgy." She looked directly at Cutter. "Cloud is very wolf-like and we have entered his territory."

Cutter nodded. This was something he could understand.

Sunstream was watching the crowd through the Palace's walls. "I don't see Aerith."

Maracae shook her head. "She wouldn't be here. She guards Cloud. He'll know where to find her."

Sunstream was confused. Wasn't Cloud the bodyguard?

Just then the doors opened and Maracae began walking out to meet Cloud, who slowly walked towards them.

When he saw her, Cloud's eyes widened in recognition. She smiled hesitantly. "Cloud." It was a greeting.

"Maracae." His voice was almost neutral, but surprised, and pleased too. He started to smile. "It's been a long time."

She nodded. The others saw her and there were cries of joy. "I'm sorry I left like that." She paused. "After . . ." She couldn't even say it.

He understood. Just then Tifa ran up and threw her arms around Maracae, exclaiming with happiness. Maracae smiled, a bittersweet look, as the others made their greetings. She looked at Vincent and even though she merely called him by name, they both knew what she wanted to call him. Father. More of a true father to her than the scientist they had defeated.

Just then Timmain emerged with several of the elves around her and Maracae heard the gasp of fear, and saw Cloud's face whiten as he reached for his sword. She reached out quickly and stopped him.

"Don't, Cloud. It's okay. Her name's Timmain and she's the reason I came back." She paused, taking a deep breath. "She needs to talk to Aerith. Where are we most likely to find her?"

The pain in Cloud's eyes was unmistakable, and mirrored in her own. He nodded. "The old church. In Midgar. That's where I saw her last."

Maracae tried to smile. "Do you want to come with us?"

He sighed. "Yes. Much has changed since . . . since you left."

\---

He'd not been exaggerating when he said that much had changed. In the old church, where Aerith had tended flowers to spite a city that killed everything around it, the flowers were gone. In their place was a pool of clear water shining through the broken floorboards. "When did this happen?" Maracae was stunned.

"I was fighting Kadaj." Cloud told her. "Before he became Sephiroth."

Maracae stiffened. "Nii-sama came back?!" There was agony in her voice. "Will we never be free of him?"

Cloud shrugged. "I defeated him and he became Kadaj again. Before he died. The water . . . it cures Geostigma. The last time I saw Aerith was standing in the water . . . healing the children." He lowered himself into the water and turned to face Marace. "She was by the door, with Zack."

Timmain watched curiously as Maracae lowered herself into the water as well. Yuna stepped forward. "So where do we find her?"

Maracae didn't turn to look, but spoke so all could hear. "Aerith died. The scream you heard – was my voice calling out when my Nii-sama killed her. But just because someone's died, it doesn't mean that they're gone. You've gone to the Farplane, Yuna, you know that."

Tidus reached out to take Yuna's hand. "What happened to this city? It feels almost like Zanarkand, the ruins, not the one I came from."

"Do you remember, Yuna, your dream of a city of light? A city that never slept?"

Yuna nodded. "Shinra said that there was limitless energy in the Farplane, but that it would be generations before it could be harnessed."

There were cries of fear and anger among those watching. Cloud whitened and Barret started to open up his gun arm. Tifa stopped him when Maracae spoke up again.

"Such a silly child he was, he knew the how but not the why. Always wondering if he could, never asking if he should. The Farplane isn't limitless. Midgar was the city you dreamed of, but the dream was a nightmare. It was a blight, sucking the life out of the Planet to be refined into energy to power homes and gadgets at a cost too terrible to bear. Midgar is a ruin, a dead machina city standing as a reminder that there are things men should not do."

Yuna paled and her hand squeezed painfully on Tidus', but he didn't pull away. "Are you saying that Spira . . ."

"I'm not sure. That's why I have to speak to Aerith myself. I don't actually know where the Ancients came from." She looked at Cloud. "Any suggestions?"

He cupped his hands and lifted a double handful of water. "You were in SOLDIER, perhaps . . .?"

She shook her head. "Jenova never touched me. I mimicked the power using my Traveler gifts. By the way," she met his eyes, "you really were SOLDIER First-Class." He dropped the water, stunned. "It just took longer to activate on you because you were so strong. It linked into your emotions, and until your emotions came into play, the depth of your caring and grief . . . You were stronger than Nii-sama." She took a few more steps into the water, looking at it. "Baptism, huh?" She turned to face all of them. "I never was the sprinkling type." She spread her arms out and fell backwards, sinking completely into the water and vanishing from sight.

\---

"Maracae!" Aerith ran up to her and threw her arms around her in a joyful embrace. "It's so good to see you again! You've been away so long."

Zack walked up just behind her. "Maracae." He gave her a brief salute.

She nodded to him. "Zack. I'm sorry I wasn't able to save you. Either of you."

Zack shook his head. "You got Cloud away, that's what matters."

Aerith huffed. "You and Cloud, always apologizing. Whose forgiveness do you really want, anyway?"

She smiled. "My own, I guess, if you're happy where you are."

Aerith smiled and glanced at Zack. "I'm happy. What brings you here?"

"I brought some friends, they need to talk to you . . . about the Ancients, and where they came from."

Aerith looked serious. "I'm not the one they're looking for. Not really. The Ancients . . . are a different bloodline entirely. You've got to go back quickly. Zack and I will meet you at the Palace. You've got to get back to it before he does."

Maracae's eyes widened in shock and understanding as she was slammed back into her body sunk into the water. She rose up quickly, grabbing hold of Cloud's hand to steady herself.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Quickly!" she gasped, trying to regain her breath. "We've got to get back. She'll meet us at the Palace. It's calling him." She clambered out of the water and turned to help Cloud out as well.

"What do you mean?" Cutter asked.

"Imagine Winnowill, with a High One's powers, and the sole survivor of an egg-ship." She looked at Timmain, apology in her eyes. "There is a descendant of your kin here and we have to stop him from reaching the Palace or there will be a new Calamity from the Skies and we will all be worse than dead."

It only took a moment to transport them all back to the Palace's doors.

 


	11. Eleven

Cloud looked at Maracae. "What do you mean? What is an 'egg-ship'? Who is Winnowill?"

Maracae sighed and raised her voice to the elves. "Cutter! Get the warriors ready and all others deep in the Palace. This could get messy, very messy."

Cutter nodded and began Sending commands and elves rushed to obey the Chief of the Palace, even though he was not its Master.

Maracae then turned to Tifa and the others. "Get the civilians out of the way. This is going to be a nastier fight than anything you guys saw with Kadaj." There were nods of understanding and she could finally turn to address Cloud's questions. "Winnowill was a nasty piece of work, a Healer who had turned her gifts inside out, causing harm and madness instead of mending it. Her son was worse in some ways than she was, but as I understand matters Two-Edge was taken care of by a family member of mine." She took a deep breath. "An egg-ship is the original form of the Palace, it's a vessel formed from the very soil and stone of the home world of the ancestors of the Elves. When their planet was dying the inhabitants formed the egg-ships and left on long journeys to find . . . experience, challenge, learning." She sighed. "Timmain was born on one of those egg-ships and she was one of those who sought to find others of her kind when they got caught by a planet that was unprepared for their magic."

Cloud felt his heart stop for a moment. "So Jenova . . . the Harbinger of destruction, the Calamity from the skies . . ."

"Apparently one of the egg-ships arrived here with only one survivor on board, one who had gone mad from solitude, trapped in a shell of a planet. She was found by the Ancients, welcomed by them, but she was not one of them." Maracae glanced at Timmain, who met her eyes with ancient sorrow and grief. "I'm so sorry, Timmain, that you have to find the remnant of a kinswoman in this way."

Timmain nodded. "Let us give her, and her son, rest."

Maracae nodded. "It is time and past time for my Nii-sama to rest in my memories."

A deep voiced chuckle sent shivers down her spine. "Now, now, little sister, as I told Cloud not that long ago, I will never be a memory."

Maracae whirled to face the speaker and brought up a knife in her hand as she saw the man with very long star-white hair and an even longer sword materialize in front of them. "Nii-sama!" The exclamation was half-whispered and a strange agony filled her expression.

Sephiroth leaned his head back slightly, drinking in the aura of the Palace. "Such power!" He fell silent for a moment and then nodded. "Yes, Mother, I agree, let us claim this vessel so that we might journey again."

Maracae felt Tidus and Yuna step forward to join her and Cloud. "I do not think so, Unsent."

Tidus fell into his ready stance, Brotherhood in his hand and prepared. "We took down Seymour, we can take you down, too."

There was motionless silence for only a moment more before they burst forward and the battle was on.

 


	12. Twelve

Tidus fell to his knees gasping for breath. "How is he so fast?"

They were all struggling, even Cloud, something in the Palace's aura was strengthening Sephiroth and it was proving more difficult than they expected to defeat the risen demon. Aerith and Zack stood at the doors to the Palace, blocking his way in, along with the warriors of the elfin tribes, but they weren't outside with him, getting their backsides handed to them by a much faster, stronger Sephiroth.

Maracae looked as if she were on the verge of collapse. "It's the Palace. The aura doesn't differentiate between those it should help and those it should not. All descendants of the High Ones are the same to it. All are equal in the sight of the elfin afterlife." She looked down at the knife in her hand and her voice was full of unshed tears. "Why must I always have to kill my brothers?"

Above them, Sephiroth gloated. "Giving up? Come, let me give you despair, my traitorous sister."

Another deep voice rang out unexpectedly. "Don't listen to him, Bittersweet."

Maracae blinked in shock and turned to see the new arrival. "How in the name of all that is holy do you know what my name means??"

The man was tall and blond, with close-cut hair and metal plate armor. Across his forehead was a streaking scar that cut across the tip of one ear. He smiled at Maracae and bowed briefly to her. "I know because you told me, Maracae Goldeneyes, my friend." He stepped forward and pulled her to her feet as the others rose around her. He carefully cradled her head in his hands. "I know you don't remember me, and you won't. Even if you never remember me, or the where and when of our meeting, you are my friend. Remember your name, remember the grace that makes the bitter sweet. Play to your strengths. You're a Dreamsail." He smiled again and they had the feeling that smiles for him were very rare and very precious. "I can chain our abilities if you can keep restoring our strength."

Sudden understanding dawned in her eyes. She turned to Yuna. "Yuna, give me Songstress."

Yuna blinked. "What?"

"Songstress, quick, trust me."

With a shrug Yuna pulled the dressphere from her sphere grid and handed it to Maracae who held it carefully in both hands for a moment. Then she looked up at the others. "Alright, once this starts, don't let up. Quickenings, Overdrives, Final Attacks, whatever you do best and strongest. Yuna, summon Bahamut and don't let up."

"But the fayth . . ."

"Don't argue right now. You can do it. Just Grand Summon and immediately dismiss."

There were slight nods around her. From his position, Sephiroth smiled. "What new plan do you have now, Little Sister?"

A wind whipped up and started to swirl around Maracae as the glow of the dressphere grew brighter and brighter in her hands. "I am not the reason that you are what you are, Nii-sama. I know that now because my Nii-dono helped me see it when I ran from here because I helped destroy you those years ago."

Sephiroth frowned. "Upon whom have you bestowed that name? Who would have the audacity to claim a higher place than I upon your heart, Little Sister?"

She smiled and the light around the dressphere spread out in a blinding flash as she rose into the air, her hair whipping around her in the wind. "I'll give you a clue, Nii-sama. I found him as a child and I saved him, the last son of a fallen land. He is Innocent and far stronger than you. And he never betrayed me, even when he fell to his own fears and sought to run from his destiny. He never betrayed me, Nii-sama."

Music flooded the air around them, a strangely pounding metallic sounding discordant chanting song and the energy that came with it suddenly made success not seem so difficult. The stranger Knight moved first, unleashing an attack that involved a circle of swords wreathed in flames. He linked then into Tidus who attacked with an Overdrive. From there Yuna summoned Bahamut and unleashed Megaflare after which Cloud swung his sword three times above his head and activated his own attack on Sephiroth.

Again and again and again they attacked him, one after another, somehow chaining their abilities through the stranger Knight and finding their strength renewed by the pounding of the music. Finally Maracae threw the dressphere up in the air and lunged forward, burying the blade of her knife in Sephiroth's chest as the music faded around them and they all settled down to the earth.

"Enough, Nii-sama. Let it go, and rest."

Sephiroth coughed once. "Never, Little Sister. I will never . . ." He collapsed and disappeared in a mist of pyrefly motes.

For a brief moment there was absolute silence. Cloud was the first to move, walking forward to help Maracae to her feet. She nodded her thanks to him as she set the knife back in the leather sheath at her side. She bent to retrieve the dressphere from the ground and offered it back to Yuna, who smiled and accepted it, setting it back in place in the sphere grid she wore on her waist.

The entire ruined battlefield was quiet, even as sound slowly returned in the aftermath of such a stunning event. Maracae nodded to the stranger Knight. "My thanks. What . . . what's your name?" She seemed almost afraid as she asked.

He shook his head. "It doesn't matter, my friend. You will not remember me in any event."

"I will not forget."

He sighed. "Yes, you will, but it matters not. I remember." He met her eyes. "Careful there." Then he vanished in a flash of light.

\---

The Palace stayed in Cloud's world for several weeks as those inside learned all they could about the Ancients and about Jenova's fall and ancient destruction. Yuna and Tidus decided that they had been away from Spira for long enough and found a way to make their own way home, with the intention of one day following their own journey through the multitude of worlds that were now open to them.

Their part in this tale came to an end as it had begun, with the two of them swimming in the waters just off Besaid Island, smiling to know that nothing could separate them ever again. From the Lifestream Aerith smiled as she watched them leave. The children of Tidus and Yuna would become the Ancients and after many generations of Traveling they would settle on a much changed Spira that would become the world that she and Zack knew and loved so well.

When the decision was made to return to Abode, Maracae bid farewell to her old friends, though Tifa and Yuffie dearly wished for her to stay. There was something strange in her manner following Sephiroth's defeat, a hesitancy, a touch of fear in her eyes, that made them worry about her.

They all remembered too well the way Cloud had vanished into himself when he had Geostigma, the way he determined to surrender and to die alone.

Maracae, though, smiled at their concerns and told them that she wasn't going to do anything stupid. She was going to see the Palace back to Abode, that was all.

With some reluctance they let her go.

Once the Palace was back in place in the woods of the Holt, Maracae vanished and Timmain would not say where the Traveler had gone. No one knew. There were a few scattered worries, mostly among the Palace dwellers, but they were not the lingering sort of worries. In short, she disappeared and no one knew where she was or why she had pulled into herself that way.

\---

Maracae gently put her hand on the trunk of the ancient tree. She was surprised to see that the old tree house still stood on this much-changed Abode. To be honest, she didn't think that it would last too many more human generations. They were becoming too numerous and the protections that she and the children of House Dreamsail had put upon it were almost gone.

This had been their hiding place. The secret fort and playground where they could go and be on their own while still being safe. It had been the only haven for more than one the night of the Massacre, when House Dreamsail lost one third of their number to murder and kidnapping.

One of the casualties of that night had never returned, not as he had been.

She climbed up the steps that flowed out from the living wood of the tree and into the chamber hidden in the branches. Once inside that room, surrounded by green light filtered through leaves, she curled up on the floor and burst into tears.

It had been so difficult holding off her emotional collapse long enough to get away from everyone. She didn't . . . she couldn't trust anyone to be around her in the inevitable aftermath of the willful taking of life. She was an empath, among other things, and the taking of life ran counter to that ability. She could do what she had to do when she had to do it, but there was always a price to pay.

The storm of tears faded and with it the last of her defenses. She was completely open and vulnerable and grieving for the loss of yet another brother.

It was then that she heard the rough gravelly voice of someone she thought she'd escaped hundreds of years before. "Well, well, well, I wondered where you were hiding, Goldeneyes, my sister."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so some of the details about the Elves of Elfquest are out of date. This an old story that was written after The Discovery but before Final Quest started. There's also a LOT of details in there relating to other stories I had going on at the time, some of which are still unfinished. I have every intention of uploading what I have of HalfElven's story, which is an altered retelling of the Original Quest, but needless to say there's all sorts of things that get changed and switched around. It's the nature of the concept, where little changes cause bigger changes as events proceed until at the end it's very different from where it began.
> 
> Oddly enough, a lot of the details surrounding Goldeneyes (also called Maracae, she's got more names than she knows what to do with) are also out of date given developments in the ongoing adventures I like to call The Grizzyverse.


End file.
